Shucks!

Having watched some of the Purdue vs Illinois game prior to ours, I was muttering that anything had to be better than that, and our game would certainly be, and how could two teams like Illinois and Purdue play like neither wanted to win when what was at stake would be the futility crown for the 2013 B1G season and this, that, and the other thing.

Well, although the same brand of futility was not associated with our game, at times it seemed that each of the combatants wanted to hand the game to the opposition. Ineptitude being pervasive, neither achieved success in that pursuit until overtime. In the end, Nebraska (8-3, 5-2 B1G) prevailed over Penn State (6-5, 3-4 B1G) 23-20.

Missed two easy ones

Recalling the bracketing effect exhibited in the comedy of errors against Minnesota two weeks ago, this time the bracketer was Sam Ficken, who missed an extra point in the first quarter that meant the difference between a Penn State win in regulation, and a missed field goal in overtime that cost the game. Oy vey!

It’s not that everything in-between was inept, but the day was replete with dropped passes, turnovers, and general screwups on both sides. Although Penn State won the turnover battle with a positive margin of one, the Lions returned to their crappy third down performance, converting only two of 14. Of course, not to be outdone, Nebraska was even crappier, with three of seventeen.

The similarities between two inept performances carry through right on down the line. Not that it all was inept, man. PSU’s leading rusher, Zach Zwinak, chalked up 149 yards, while Nebraska’s Ameer Abdullah gained 147 on the ground. Bill Belton was ill, looking forlorn in his hoodie on the sidelines with a face that broadcast, “I sick.” (Several Lions were seen with bandaids on their arms, perhaps immunized against whatever Belton had.) Nebraska’s starting freshman quarterback Tommy Armstrong was pulled early by Bo Pelini, and his replacement, senior Ron Kellogg III went 20-34 for 191 yards and a touchdown. Meanwhile, Christian Hackenberg passed 33 times, completing 16 for 217 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. Several dropped passes by normally reliable receivers like Geno Lewis and Kyle Carter, along with the increasingly unreliable Brandon Felder, along with some errant throws by Hacky, made it clear that the offense was struggling.

The run, however, was reliable, and the offensive line was moving the somewhat maligned Nebraska defensive front around for Mr. Zwinak, so it wuddn’t all bad. Allen “Gimme da Damn Ball” Robinson caught eight for 106 yards. I think his contract states that he must get eight receptions per game or his number ain’t eight. Time of possession favored Penn State by over a minute. So, no, it wasn’t all bad. The game was actually winnable. I didn’t think it would be.

Nebraska tried to give it away whenever they could, but the mighty Nittany Lions, principled as they are and conditioned by the St. Joe tradition, did not accept the gifts, and instead, attempted to return the favor. Even though the Huskers were penalized seven times for 54 yards while the Lions were nailed only three times for 25, I’d say the gift of a missed extra point and a missed easy field goal more than made up for it.

The defense played pretty well, except that they were manhandled by the Nebraska run. No big surprise there, as Nebraska had beaten up on Moo U.’s vaunted run defense.

Was it the weather? Nah.

OK, anyhow, one game to go and it’ll be a wrap on this season. If you care about how I’ve done guiding you in your gambling pursuits, I’m 8-3 straight up, 6-5 against the spread, and 6-5 on the over/under. So listen to me at your own risk. Better yet, don’t gamble.

Meanwhile, our Übersanguinarian — you know who you are — is admiring the Lions’ performance in yet another victory that was snatched from them by the cheaters on the other side. They’re 10-1 and would be going to the Rose Bowl if it weren’t for the dirty Communist plot engineered by Komisar Mark Emmert and Field Marshal Jim Delany. Those damn officials moved the goal posts just as Ficken was kicken’.

It turns out that I’m safe from a possible intra-rectal Jupiter insertion. Before the game, I had said that these were two middle-of-the-pack Big Ten teams, but Nebraska was just better enough to win. Perhaps with Taylor Martinez they would have been a lot better. The spread had dropped to one point at kickoff time, which means that on a neutral field Nebraska would have been favored by two. Still pretty damn even, which is how they played, but mistakes’ll killya every time.

The Turkey will be back later in this holiday week to predict and preview the Wisconsin game. In the meanwhile, if we don’t touch bases before this turkey heads to the mattresses to avoid the butcher block, listen to those Chick-Fil-A cows and EAT MOR CHIKN! Spare a turkey this Thanksgiving. If you can’t, you’re forgiven — just come back and read this turkey.

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Oh well. “They are who we thought they were” seemed so appropriate at the end of this one.

I did enjoy the snow flying and understand why the folks in the SEC won’t come North after November 1st to play anyone in the B1G-it’s friggin cold!

I’m curious why you didn’t include Allen “Gimme the damn ball” Robinson in your list of receivers who had a case of the dropsies? I think it’s hilarious that he can make the “difficult” catches, but the simple shit sometimes seems to get the better of him. I’m pretty sure he’s gone next year; perhaps it is time to clean house and let BOB sink or swim with “his guys”, even though his talent will be missed.

I won’t throw it all on Ficken, but there were enough mistakes on both sides of the ball to cost us a “W”.

But I’m going to be positive today.

I thought the LB’s played probably the best game of the season and was very impressed with true freshman Brandon Bell.

The TE’s finally made an appearance, but it now looks like Lehman isn’t going to be granted a 6th year.

The OL seems to keep getting better and overall, I thought the D, played their best game of the year, but it’s not good enough to be a “contenda”, until they get some safety talent, can get better at outside contain, and recruit some players with SPEED!

So on the morning after, I had to ask myself if after a game that could have been a victory and what looks like a for sure .500 season, did I feel better as a Penn State fan than

-A Gator fan. Good God Will Muschamp! How could you get curb stomped by Georgia Southern especially after you paid them $550, 000 to come to Tallahassee to supposedly get the shit kicked out of them. At least you held them to zero passing yards!

-A N’western fan. 0-7 in the B1G when you thought this was your year. Me thinks last year/this year were their best shots and Fitz will never bring a team from N’western to the promised land!

-An Oregon fan. Hoooooo baby! A couple of days after saying you weren’t interested in going to the Rose Bowl, you got your wish and at the hands of Rich Rod no less. Ouch! Wonder what they’re thinking in Ann Arbor this morning?

-A Seminole fan. Keep rolling up those points, because in another week, after running the table, Jamais is going to get charged with felony sexual assault. And you ain’t winning nothin’ without “Famous Jamais”! In fact watch how fast you drop in the human polls after the charges are filed.

-An A&M, Baylor fan. It’s over folks, you’ll be back to your old station in life (football) next year and beyond.

So yeah, a victory here would have been nice touchy, feely story, but again as I’ve said here several times what does it matter if we’re 6-6, 7-5 or 8-4 this year. Until our Academic Monitor, Sen George Mitchell, recommends next September that we be allowed to go to the (fill in the blank) bowl and Herr Delaney says we’re now eligible for the B1G Championship Game, it don’t really mean shit.

But, I would still rather be where we are this morning, than a couple of those other guys I mentioned.

Oh, I would really like to know what Kenney did. He did play a couple snaps, but did not participate in the “senior introduction”; all BOB would say is that they talked about it and he thinks he’s joining the track team.

Ahh to be a fly on the wall in BOB’s office!!!!

And I’m not even going to think about what’s going to happen next Saturday!!

Yeah, AS’s daughter is a freshman at University of Florida. She wasn’t much of a football fan before she matriculated, but now she’s a Muschamp hater like the rest of them in Gainesville. (That’s your Florida geography lesson for the day, in an oblique way.)

Georgia Southern has long been the cream of the former I-AA crop. They used to routinely clean UCF’s clock before the UCF cheaters ascended to I-A. Michigan had its App State moment, but this is worse: losing to a lesser division school a week after losing to SEC patsy Vandy in your homecoming game. There will be no forgiveness for Muschamp.

Just think, if Beckman hadn’t pulled out the win against Purdue and got fired, there might have been a job at Illinois for Muschamp. Illinois is the elephant burial ground for failed coaches.

I don’t know what will happen at the real Tallahassee school. The babe’s lawyer is making big talk, but with a potential national championship on the line and marketing goodwill for the Seminole tribe and its casinos at stake, some big buck are at play. Mouths can be shut with large wads of money. People can be made to disappear. Otherwise, Ben Roethlisberger would be serving time for rape.

I do think that the Seminoles have a surfeit of talent. Nevertheless, Jameis’ loss would be costly.

I’m resisting the notion of Ohio State backing into the SSMNC game again. I just don’t want to see another Big Ten embarrassment!

Happy Thanksgiving to you, and here’s to a non-embarrassing performance at Camp Randall.

This one they managed to lose all on their own. Though it should be noted that in a similar play to last year’s McGloin INT in the Nebraska game, the intended receiver was being blatantly held directly in front of an official who didn’t even think about throwing the flag forcing the check down which in turn was picked. Then there was the third and long pass interference that maybe was maybe wasn’t (in that situation, that flag is almost never thrown, especially when the receiver initiates contact) that the BTN announcer messed up on when he said you can’t face guard (which you can in college). Never mind the two huge officiating gaffes in the game (a minor one went Penn State’s way), Penn State managed to lose to an inferior Nebraska team regardless.

Penn State has better personnel despite all the injuries which are the big culprit for the team’s performance this year, not the depth, not the sanctions, not John Butler or Bill O’Brien’s frequent refusal to run the football and the not the officiating (we would be looking at a seven or eight year if they played all opponents on an even field). In all my days of watching Big Ten football I have never seen a team with a case of the injury bug like this team has. It is beyond believable how many players are hurt.

I have to agree that Penn State and Nebraska are pretty even, talentwise. Injuries certainly have hit Penn State hard and that lack of depth has cost them this year. I agree that the combination of the sanctions and injuries are the major factors in this year’s mediocre performance.

We’ll worry about next year after a sufficient pause to digest this season.

Didn’t see the Nebraska game (fuck you DISH), but I did see some Penn State football Saturday. Unfortunately the guys playing it wore ugly green uniforms with goofy helmet decals. The Suckeyes are going to have to earn their way to the MNC game.

From the write-ups, Penn State played better than I expected. Hack apparently had a mediocre game and that wasn’t surprising, but the running game and defense exceeded expectations. Special teams performed even worse than expected and lost the game.

Every coach I ever played for used that tired old cliché – “you either practice to get better or get worse, you can’t stay the same.” (Personally, I never saw any reason why you couldn’t “stay the same”) Ficken is clearly getting worse.

I’m surprised BoB decided to run off Gilliam. Next year he will now have only 4 returning offensive linemen with any significant playing time – D Smith, Diffenbach, Alosi, and Mangiro. And Alosi must have done something to piss BoB off since he didn’t play against Purdue. I hope those freshman “run-ons” he’s redshirting this year are real studs.

Anyway Turkey, I’m glad you were spared from a planetary rectal insertion this weekend and hope you survive Thanksgiving.

We in The Cave were discussing Gilliam, Baublitz, and Kenney. Alas, we might never know what transpired in those meetings with O’Brien. Kenney was pretty much a bust, so that one didn’t surprise any of us. Perhaps, he’ll find a new home on the track team. However, the other two guys have been making contributions, so why shitcan them at this point? There are lots of possibilities, but we don’t have a clue.

I’ve written off Ficken and Butterworth for the year. No expectations at all. They’ve already proven their worth — or lack of same.

It’s been a weird year, but my expectations pretty realistic all along. The win-lose-win-lose pendulum will stop at Wisconsin for the first losing streak of the season.

So from a “trend standpoint”, I would say that there is a high probability that the season ends with an “L”. Fascinating, wonder if Urschel has calculated the probabilities!

Although the true believers might say this is the time to buck the trend, I think there is a better chance that a new Jag XFR is sitting in front of my house on Christmas morning than a PS win at Camp Randall on Saturday!

Yes, please come up with a new metaphor for next season. Every time you write that I wince, especially with the knowledge that like it’s brother (or sister) planet, Jupiter does have rings, which I assume has space debris of all sorts in their midst. Ouch!!!

“Pretty good” covers lots of territory. My feeling is that PSU won’t be contending for a B1G title for at least a few years. But if “pretty good” means a one or two loss B1G schedule, I might be able to see that happening. This team is a long way from being up there with OSU and Moo U. A couple of great recruiting classes and an end to the overhanging aura of lack of desirability as a destination for recruits who care more about titles than grades, combined with O’Brien hanging around to lend some NFL connections (legitimacy, from the naive recruit’s perspective) and you’re going to like the way you look — I guarantee it!

Yeah, but we’re a few years from that point. Hacky will have his sophomore slump and full scholarships won’t be reinstated until his junior year. So, how about a B1G championship for his senior season? Eh? Eh?

I’m so far removed from that sort of thing at this stage in my life that it’s easy to minimize its effect on the other guy. I feel for you, Drozz. Trying to negotiate the holiday season while advancing your legal career through sleepus interruptus and loud squalling in the wee hours is fraught with peril, but it ultimately abates, yielding manifold rewards.

Eventually, you might even find the time to reprise the PSU football blog.

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The Nittany Turkey is a retired techno-geek who thinks he knows something about Penn State football and everything else in the world. If there's a topic, we have an opinion on it, and you know what "they" say about opinions! Most of what is posted here involves a heavy dose of hip-shooting conjecture, but unlike some other blogs, we don't represent it as fact. Read More…